BlueTooth pairing

[Tim Hall]

Saturday's journey home from Corby was enlivened by some young people sharing their music with the whole coach, through the medium of a mobile phone paired with a bluetooth speaker. Of course, the obvious way to get a little peace and quiet would be to ask them to turn it down, but, hey, this is England, so we all just tut.

Anyway, seeing as the pairing of the mobile phone to the speaker was best with problems, evidenced by the large number of times an electronic voice announced such, would it be possible for someone (eg me) to pair first and then subject the carriage to John Cage's "4'33" " on an endless loop?

IM(L)E of such speakers (sample size = 1), a password didn't seem to be required, although I may have misremembered things.

[rusky]

Older Bluetooth (2.1/"classic") needed a passkey e.g. 0000 or 1234 etc. this was done away with at Bluetooth 3 & upward so you just pair & go.

You should only be able to pair to a speaker that's not got an active pairing, yes.

[Pickled Onion]

Generally you pair a device with the speaker the first time by pressing a button on the speaker to put it in "pairing mode". It then remembers the last n devices it's paired with and connects to them whenever it's turned on. So, no, you wouldn't have been able to sneak your phone on to it unless they'd not paired with it before.

[drossall]

Our married daughter recently rode with us, and paired her phone with her car. The other day, she drove in her own car past my wife in ours, and daughter's conversation came briefly over our speakers...

[Morat]

Some speakers come with NFC so you can just tap your phone against the right spot and the devices will talk to each other using Magic.

[Feanor]

So how does current Bluetooth pairing work if there's no passcode?

Is it just totally promiscuous?
You hit the 'mate with me' button on the speakers, and any randy client in the vicinity can detect it's in heat and hump it within a certain time?

[Kim]

IME only trivial devices can pair without a passcode.  Speakers, meece, that sort of thing.  If you're pairing something smarter (that might pose a more serious security risk) then you still get to do the passcode thing.

[Jurek]

IME only trivial devices can pair without a passcode.  Speakers, meece, that sort of thing.  If you're pairing something smarter (that might pose a more serious security risk) then you still get to do the passcode thing.

You offer reassurance.

[Vince]

Boy Wunja's current trick is to pair his phone with a demo speaker in say John Lewis, then wander a little way off and play recordings of his band.

[Mr Larrington]

IME only trivial devices can pair without a passcode.  Speakers, meece, that sort of thing.  If you're pairing something smarter (that might pose a more serious security risk) then you still get to do the passcode thing.

My motor-car decided it wanted to talk to my phone today and that wanted a passcode.  I have no idea what advantages accrue from this unless in the event of the vehicle being umop-ap!sdn it automatically calls 911